A WESTERN link road nearer Exeter Road and Downeshead is "not a done deal" and there will be a public consultation in Crediton in September.

Devon County Council member for Crediton, Nick Way, gave this assurance when speaking at the annual town meeting, organised by the Town Council but not itself a council meeting.,

Almost 50 people were at the meeting which followed a two-day exhibition of the town council's emerging town plan plus the possible link road schemes.

Cllr Way said he had been "as surprised as everyone else" to have been presented with this western alternative. That morning he and six other people from Crediton had been at a county council briefing about the road.

He explained that the previous route off the A377 through the valley from near Downes Mill had been discounted as being unachievable with two-thirds of the people at last year's consultation preferring the hillside route.

That route was estimated to cost £7.5 million, the new western route would be about £5.5 million because, apparently, much of the earth needed for the bund (an earth bank) to give some protection against traffic noise would be on site.

After last year's consultation the county council executive, its decision making body, had agreed to go ahead with the hillside route but also to look at alternatives.

Engineers felt the hillside route would be unsafe and more expensive. "As a result we have the route in front of us now," said Cllr Way.

"Until the consultation in September the road designers will be doing more detailed work which would include levels of pollution and noise."

Asked if the hillside route was still a possibility, Cllr Way said the comparison was needed. "We had insisted everyone was at the consultation including English Heritage, the Environment Agency and Mid Devon District Council." He felt the hillside route was feasible even with a 1-10 gradient.

For the rest of this story, please see issue 822.